


Guts. Glory. Kittens?

by Telesilla



Series: Take a Chance on Me [4]
Category: Baseball RPF, Sports RPF
Genre: Baseball, Established Relationship, Kittens, M/M, Overly sweet, San Francisco Giants, Schmoop, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, no really there's a kitten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-18
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-19 20:17:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1482556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telesilla/pseuds/Telesilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buster finds a kitten under the hood of his truck and the outcome is inevitable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guts. Glory. Kittens?

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in August of 2013, about a week after "If You're Feeling Down."

It's a typical August late afternoon in San Francisco--which is to say it's overcast and cold by the time they leave the yard. The fog hasn't rolled in yet, but it will soon. On top of it all, they lost today in spectacular fashion. The trip from the clubhouse to Buster's truck feels like a real slog; it seems to take forever.

"Wanna come by?" he asks Madison. 

"Yeah, I...what the hell is that noise?"

Buster instinctively ducks, sure the high pitched crying noise is a seagull. But no, the gulls are still living it up inside the park. The closer he gets to his truck, the louder the noise gets; it's clearly some kind of animal. 

"Must be under...." he says, ducking down to look. 

"You can't see anything like that." Madison gets down on the ground and then shimmies under the front of the truck. "I can hear it," he says. "But I can't see it."

Buster just stares for a moment, because Madison doing shit like this shouldn't be so hot, but really, it is.

"Maybe it's under the hood," Buster finally says. The cat--it's obviously a cat--sounds even more pathetic when Buster pops the hood. There's a tiny ball of fur tucked down in the wheel well, but when Buster reaches in, the kitten retreats.

"Ow! You little bastard!"

"Did you get...." Before Buster can finish the question, Madison inches out from under the truck. 

"Little fucker scratched me." Madison holds up the kitten, his big hand wrapped around its middle. 

"Well at least you won't get rabies. Only a bite...."

"I know that; I grew up on a fucking farm." He looks at the kitten; it's still mewing pathetically and now it starts squirming. "What the fuck are we gonna do with it?"

Buster stares at him in surprise. "Take him home, of course," he says. 

Madison lifts the kitten and looks at it closely. "Her. And are you sure?"

"What else are we gonna do? We can't leave her here." 

Madison sighs. "Yeah, I guess. She's kinda filthy, though."

"I'll put her in the downstairs bathroom with some food and stuff and then call Timmy. See if he knows a vet who can look at her."

"How're you getting her home?"

Buster frowns and looks in the backseat. He hasn't got much back there in the way of bags or boxes. 

"Here, hold her."

Madison was right; she's filthy. She's also thin and Buster can feel her rapid heartbeat as he holds her. "Gonna be okay," he says, stroking her head with one finger. She's so tiny, he thinks. "You're gonna be fine."

"Here," Madison's got a big Nike shoe box and a bungee cord. "That should get her back to your place."

The kitten is not all that enthused about being put in a box; once she's in it and the bungee cord is wrapped around it, she starts up with the crying again.

"It's okay, honey," Buster says, putting the box on the passenger seat. "It's just a short trip...we'll be home in no time."

"Oh God," Madison mutters. When Buster looks at him, he just shakes his head. "I'm gonna go by my place real quick. Get some clothes."

Even with a stop at the convenience store by his house, Buster gets home pretty quickly. One advantage of living in a city as small as San Francisco, he thinks as he carries the box into the house. 

He leaves the kitten in the box while he puts a pile of towels on the floor of the downstairs bathroom. After dumping some canned cat food into a bowl and setting up a bowl of water, he lifts her out of the box. "See? You can settle in here and we'll see about getting you cleaned up and looked at."

The minute she's on the floor, she makes a beeline toward the food. "Hey hey," Buster says. "Slow down." He's glad he only gave her part of the can. "You'll be sick if you eat too fast."

She just keeps eating. Buster sits on the floor in the doorway and watches her as she plows through all the food and then drinks some water. 

"Better?" he asks, reaching out to pet her. When she backs away, he holds his hand still and after a minute or two, she cautiously rubs her cheek against his palm. "Well that settles that," he says and, leaving the one hand out for her to nuzzle, he pulls his phone out of his pocket.

By the time Madison shows up, the kitten is asleep on top the pile of towels and Buster's left a message with Tim's vet.

"Tell them who you are," Tim said. "They're like, serious fans and they'll fit you in. Seriously, though, Buster. A kitten?" He'd still been snickering when Buster ended the call.

"So what're you gonna do with her?" Madison asks, once Buster tells him about the vet. "See if they can find a home for her?"

"Um...." Buster bites his lip a little. "I thought...."

"I knew it." Madison heaves a sigh. "What the hell are you thinking? You can't have a cat; you're never home."

"I'm home half the time." Buster knows he sounds defensive, but fuck it. "I can board her for the first couple roadies and then have someone in to feed her when I'm gone."

Madison shakes his head. "I always took you for a dog person."

"Like I could have a dog here?" Buster does have a small space behind the house, but it's paved with brick and can't really be called a yard.

"Timmy manages."

"Timmy's dogs are small. If I had a dog, I'd want a Lab or something big like that."

"So instead, you're adopting the smallest kitten ever."

"Come here," Buster says, grabbing Madison's hand.

"No, I really don't want...." Madison says, but he lets Buster pull him toward the bathroom.

The kitten doesn't even stir when Buster opens the door. She's curled up--a little ball of gray fur all but buried in a yellow towel. "Look at her."

"I'm closing my eyes."

"C'mon, Maddy."

"Fine," Madison says. "She's adorable, okay?"

"She's what, maybe three or four months old? And she survived out there by the yard, fighting for food with those fucking seagulls."

"Yeah," Madison says, looking at the bandage on his hand. "Gotta admit: she's pretty tough."

"She's not just tough," Buster says with a grin. "She's Ram Tough."

"Well now you've gone and named her." Madison heaves another put upon sigh. "I guess we gotta keep her."

Trying not to smile too broadly at that "we" Buster crouches down next to the towel. "That's you," he says quietly, stroking her back gently. 

Ram Tough makes a sleepy little noise and nuzzles Buster's hand before going back to sleep.

"You really didn't stand a chance."

Buster climbs to his feet and slides his arms around Madison's waist. "No, I didn't," he says. "You don't mind too much, do you?"

"Nah," Madison says, glancing down at the sleeping kitten. "Still think you're a sucker though."

"For kittens," Buster says. He pauses to kiss Madison hard. "And maybe for you too."

_-end-_

**Author's Note:**

> "Guts. Glory. Ram" is the current Dodge Ram slogan and "built Ram tough" is one of the older slogans. ETA: Actually it turns out it's "Built Ford Tough" but let's pretend that this is some weird AU or something.
> 
> After today's frustrating loss, I figured we could all use some cute. And really, it doesn't get much cuter than this. :)
> 
> Once, when my life sucked really hard, my ex and I found a kitten under the hood of our car. We ended up keeping her and though she stayed with my ex when we split up, she was still a tiny ray of sunshine in an otherwise shitty time.


End file.
